R.I.P.D.

For F*** Magazine

R.I.P.D.

Director: Robert Schwentke
Cast:  Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, James Hong, Marisa Miller
Genre: Action, Fantasy
Run Time: 96 mins
Opens: 8 August 2013
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Language And Violence)

Danny Boyle’s A Life Less Ordinary featured angels in the form of heavenly policemen assigned to help the inhabitants of our earthly plane find love. In this film, based on Peter Lenkov’s graphic novel Rest In Peace Department, “heavenly policemen” are supernatural S.W.A.T officers instead of cupids – their job is dealing with defiant souls who escape judgment to continue walking the earth, up to no good.

Our protagonist, Ryan Reynolds’ Boston police officer Nick Walker, dies. This is not a spoiler; it’s what sets things in motion. Walker is offered a position in the department of the title by the no-nonsense Proctor (Parker), which he accepts in the hope of being reunited with his bereaved wife Julia (Stephanie Szostak). He’s teamed up with Roy Pulsipher (Bridges), a surly older gentleman and R.I.P.D. veteran. Make that much older – dude used to be a U.S. Marshal in the Old West. Together, they have to bring down crooked cop Bobby Hayes (Bacon), Nick’s former partner. They’ve also got to thwart a plot to open up a portal that will unleash hordes of souls on the earth, bringing about the end of the world.



Anyone who’s heard of this film probably could’ve smelled the familiar waft of pure formula from a mile away. One look at the poster and the trailer might have one overcome with a sense of déjà vu – which is justified because everything this movie does has been done to, well, death. Comparisons have been made ad nauseum to those mysterious government agents in the black tuxedoes and the firehouse-dwelling, Ecto-1-driving spirit exterminators, so there’s no need to belabour the point. It has also been pointed out that the premise seems very reminiscent of the cult TV show Good vs. Evil, in which a secret agency operating out of heaven battles demons from hell, right down to the agents appearing differently to others.

That brings us to probably the most entertaining aspect of the film: when operating on earth as R.I.P.D. agents, Nick takes on the appearance of an elderly Chinese man named Jerry Chen (Hong), while Roy is in the guise of the glamourous and buxom Opal Pavlenko (Miller). These avatars were obviously meant as an exercise in contrast, Hong and Miller hilariously mismatched, and the resulting sight gags do manage to be amusing.



Ryan Reynolds can’t quite seem to catch a break, pigeon-holed as a comic actor who has unsuccessfully tried to become a mainstream movie star. He’s okay as the protagonist thrust into a world he was hitherto oblivious to, but can’t quite do anything special with the material. Jeff Bridges gleefully chews the scenery with his over-the-top cowboy drawl and anachronistic slang and hamming it up is better than phoning it in, but even then he can’t save this, despite his resemblance to Roy in the comics. Unfortunately, the two don’t quite generate adequate chemistry to keep the movie running on anything more than fumes.

The trailers don’t showcase Kevin Bacon, who plays the main antagonist, but even in something as middling as this, he’s relatively entertaining. Bobby isn’t a particularly scary villain and this isn’t the best use of his talent by far but, like Bridges, he does what he can. It’s just that his smarmy, insidious dirty cop doesn’t seem like the kind of force of evil who would figure in a larger than life supernatural action-comedy romp. Mary-Louise Parker’s comically po-faced boss lady is also an often-seen stock character, and she is better playing characters like the peppy girlfriend in the RED movies.

Speaking of RED, the director of the first film, Robert Schwentke, is in charge. He made RED a surprisingly entertaining, warm and action-packed film but cannot bring the same magic to R.I.P.D., in spite of a few relatively enjoyable action sequences and a decent climactic shootout/melee. A movie that sounds this much fun on paper shouldn’t be such a drag. There’s also an attempt to insert some pathos in the form of Nick trying to reach out to his wife from beyond the grave that while not quite jarring, doesn’t fit in tonally with the rest of the movie.

R.I.P.D. also puts on show some very unpolished visual effects work, the various ghoulish “deados” on the loose are not convincing in the least. The designs of said deados aren’t very imaginative and neither is the way they attack our heroes, all of them pretty much oversized brawlers. Some of the environmental effects, such as a house split in two by “soul stank” and a collapsing parking garage are executed slightly better. One of the visuals that does work though is the mix of resurrected lawmen from various points in history all working in the same office at R.I.P.D. headquarters.

This is a film that has flopped hard at the U.S. box office and it isn’t hard to see why – this isn’t so much “bad” as it is “blah”. It’s a buddy cop action comedy in a supernatural setting, and registers as a damp squib in all of those categories. This is one of those films that arrives in theatres ready-packed into a pine box.

Summary: More films like these and Ryan Reynolds’ career might as well enlist in the Rest in Peace Department.

RATING: 2 out of 5 STARS

Jedd Jong

RED: Retired, Extremely Dangerous

So the first review to be posted is also my latest. Red is now showing in theatres.

Movie Review                                                                                                             11/11/10

RED

2010

Starring: Bruce Willis, Mary Louise-Parker, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren

Directed by: Robert Schwentke

Summit Entertainment/diBonaventura Pictures.

            “Life begins at 60” has, for a long time, sounded like a pithy excuse to keep the elderly in the workforce and deny them their pension. However, there are some who get more badass with age. Just a couple of months earlier there were The Expendables, a gang of soldiers who had seemingly past their prime but could still do some serious damage. Giving Stallone and co. a run for their money are the team from RED, which stands for “Retired; Extremely Dangerous”. And there is ample proof that those two terms are not mutually exclusive at all.

            Frank Moses (Willis), once one of the CIA’s best agents, has settled into a mundane routine in suburban Cleveland. Moses is nurturing a relationship-by-telephone with Sarah (Louise-Parker), a customer service agent from his pension office, and decides to go down to Kansas to see her.

            Frank is assaulted in his home by a squad of heavily-armed mercenaries, and is made fully aware that his past has caught up with him, and that the CIA has decided to silence him and anyone else who was witness to war crimes committed in Guatemala. The young(er) and ruthlessly efficient agent William Cooper (Karl Urban) is tasked with taking Frank out.

            Sarah is swept up into the whole mess as Frank hops around the country to reassemble his former teammates, a motley crew of similarly-retired and similarly-dangerous characters. There’s Joe (Morgan Freeman), disappointed with life in a nursing home, Marvin (Malkovich), delusional, unhinged but still a sharp operative and Victoria (Mirren), on the surface a genteel and proper elderly lady but a lethal marksman, with some assistance from Ivan (Brian Cox), a former KGB agent and rival.

            It turns out that the team have uncovered a far-reaching conspiracy involving the Vice-President of the United States (Julian McMahon) and wealthy arms-dealer Alexander Dunning (Richard Dreyfuss). And anybody standing in their way had best get out or be prepared to feel a lot of pain.

            Though it doesn’t look like it at first, Red is based on a Homage Comics graphic novel, by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner. However, the film bears little resemblance to the source material, but this is a rare case where that may be to the film’s benefit. As opposed to the serious and gritty graphic novel, the film version of Red is an action-comedy through and through.

            Action-comedies happen to be my favourite film genre. However, it is also a very tricky one. The balance of action and comedy must be just right, and there must also be other elements - style, emotion and the like - to complement the action and the comedy. For me, the benchmark was set by James Cameron’s True Lies, which delivered a highly effective one-two punch of big crazy action set pieces combined with belly laughs.

            Red is different but by no means worse than True Lies. It is that rare gem where everything comes together just right. The cast, the story, the camera work, the action sequences and everything else in-between fit just right. Normally, when a film is described as “patchwork”, it’s not a good thing. But this is a patchwork movie in the same way a beautiful quilt is also a patchwork. The film has style, but a style that is unpretentious and fun to watch, as opposed to sometimes pretentious “stylistic” movies.

            To compare it to the afore-mentioned The Expendables, in which Willis had a cameo, Red seems to triumph. On the surface, both are “Geriatric A-Team”-type action flicks. The former however, for all its macho bravado and nostalgic 80s-style hard action, was a reunion of action heroes with the plot a mere excuse. On the other hand, Red doesn’t take its superstar cast for granted and has many other elements going for it. Perhaps it has more in common with Morgan Freeman’s previous film The Maiden Heist, a whimsical and well-acted comedy that also had older stars.

            It’s hard to come by a good, genuinely funny comedy that is not overly cynical or sardonic. Red is at its core sweet and sincere. Yes, a movie with explosions, missile-launchers, smoke bombs and car crashes is, at its core, sweet and sincere. Red is ultimately very character-driven, and as such it is a good thing that the cast does an outstanding job. With John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Richard Dreyfuss and Morgan Freeman on the list, one could well mistake this for some Oscar-bait drama. And that’s one of the film’s many strengths: its cast do not seem to consider this to be frivolous or beneath them, and give their all while appearing to be having a blast.

To approach the film from a literary standpoint, its core theme seems to be about rediscovering youth. The two love story subplots, the first between Frank and Sarah and the second between two other characters (I won’t spoil it for you) feel like teenage crushes, puppy love almost, with the gunfights and fisticuffs keeping them from becoming cloying or saccharine. Marvin’s LSD-induced antics seem amusingly juvenile, like that of a crazy stoned youngster. And nobody does unhinged like John Malkovich, believe you me.

            Bruce Willis lets his softer side come through in-between dealing out pain to the bad guys, Karl Urban plays an anti-villain of sorts with a sympathetic edge, Helen Mirren is a blast as the gun-toting-yet-refined Victoria, Morgan Freeman affable as ever, Richard Dreyfuss gleefully evil and Mary Louise-Parker the perfect girl-next-door who finally gets the excitement she’s always wanted.

            Robert Schwentke, who previously ramped up the suspense in Flightplan, proves he can handle kinetic action scenes competently as well. It is amazingly refreshing to be able to watch a proper shootout sequence without the breakneck speed editing, headache-inducing camera angles and unnecessary bells and whistles. And Dame Helen Mirren firing away 50 calibre bullets is a sight that has to be seen to be believed.

            Red may well be my favourite movie of the year thus far. Its combination of heart, style and adrenaline make it a winner. Most of its stars may be age 55 and above, but this is one very fresh film. Red gets my green light.

RATING: 4.5/5 STARS

Jedd Jong Yue